Interstate 60

A movie and two music videos. 

 



Last night after Narcotics Anonymous we ate pizza (Joes's no less) and watched a great movie I had never heard of before. It was released in 2003 and is called Interstate 60. Of course there is the legendary Highway 61, but in fact there is no Interstate 60. Therein lies the basic premise of this smart, funny and trippy film. The movie is described online as:

A road movie for the millennium, "Interstate 60" is the story of a young man, whose confusion about the future course of his life leads him on a wild journey on a road that doesn't exist on any map.

As the hero makes various stops along the way he encounters all kinds of situations that are actually sharp satires of everything from lawyers to hypocritical art snobs. One of the best send-ups is of the War on Drugs, with the ridicule astutely delivered to both drug users and those who try to stop them. Frankly, it's the most clear-eyed examination of the attitudes and foibles of drugs and law enforcement that I've seen on film.

Interstate 60 didn't do well at the box office, but is now available on DVD. The film has cult-classic written all over it. There's lots of little sight gags that only the sharpest observers will catch. For example, the clock behind Christopher Lloyd (surprisingly convincing as God) reads 10:04, the same time frozen on the clock tower in Back to the Future. In any case, the film deserves a wide audience, and I hope you will take the time to check out this overlooked gem.

This morning I was cutting across the playground of the Bridge Street School in Northampton when I saw these kids playing on the blacktop while waiting for school to start. It had a map of the USA painted on it. 

We used to have a similar map painted on the blacktop behind The World Famous Thomas M. Balliet Elementary School in Springfield, but the blacktop and map wore away many years ago. Seeing this Hamp version made me feel a bit lonesome for my childhood.

Someone (I promised not to say who) alerted me to this video, telling me they thought that Paolo Mastrangelo resembles the young Lou Reed.

I agree.



While Lou has the sex appeal, to hear that song done properly you need to hear it done by Phish.